As he explored a possible sale a year ago, Taylor found that he couldn’t bring himself to do it, for reasons that would be familiar to any business owner seeking to retire. Family wasn’t an option, and finding a buyer who would also be a caretaker of a beloved business (i.e., one who wouldn’t move it out of state) was tricky.

And finally, at age 72, Taylor realized he was too excited about the franchise’s improving on-court performance and its prospects for returning to profitability thanks to the NBA’s recently revamped financial structure.

“The more I thought about it, the more I decided I really didn’t want to leave basketball,” he said. “I had seller’s remorse.”

So, Taylor pulled the team off the market and even bought out some of his minority investors. The Mankato businessman, who saved the franchise from relocating to New Orleans when he first bought it 18 years ago, still doesn’t have a succession plan in place for the Wolves. For now, he doesn’t care — he’s reinvigorated and investing heavily in the franchise’s future.

Taylor has committed to pay $44 million toward a $97 million renovation of Target Center that will modernize the nearly 25-year-old arena. And he plans to spend millions more to build a new practice facility across the street at Block E.

Those sizable investments were made possible by the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, in which Taylor played a prominent role negotiating with the players association in 2011. That deal gives the owners 50 percent of league revenue and boosted revenue sharing to shift more resources from big-market clubs to the smaller-market teams, putting the Wolves in position to return to profitability either this year or next. (The team hasn’t made money in any season since 2007, according to estimates from Forbes magazine.)

“I paid $88 million for the team, so whatever the franchise is worth today [an estimated $430 million], I’ll make a lot of money when I sell,” he said. “I never went into this to make a lot of money, so I feel good about my decision to reinvest in Minnesota’s franchise.

Taylor and the city originally proposed a $155 million Target Center renovation. The former state senator later settled for a more modest project, whereas many other sports owners probably would have lobbied for a new arena.

“He understood that this was a common-sense way to approach redevelopment instead of tearing down [Target Center] and building a whole new facility,” Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson said.

Taylor has always been willing to invest in the franchise when he sees an opportunity, whether it’s an arena upgrade or a contract extension for a star player, Wolves President Chris Wright said.

“That’s Glen’s way of saying, ‘Hey, I’m in. This is my state, this is my city,’ ” Wright said. “He wants to be remembered, I think, … as the person who saved [the franchise] and who, whenever he does decide to get out, leaves it in very good shape with a remodeled building and a great facility for our players to play in.”

‘As long as I’m healthy’

Taylor’s decision to explore selling the Timberwolves was born out of a broader success-planning process — or, as he says, “What would happen if Glen Taylor got hit by a bus?”

His various other businesses, including Mankato-based Taylor Corp., are set up to operate through trusts, but that’s not an option for the Wolves, because the NBA doesn’t allow it. With no family member in position to inherit the club the way Jim Pohlad took over the Minnesota Twins from his father, Carl, the Wolves would have to be sold if anything happened to Taylor.

“My thought was that I should prepare for that by bringing in a minority partner who would invest into the club, and then when I’m ready to sell, they would be there to buy it,” Taylor said. “That person would have a chance to be part of running the club, so they would get some experience and Minnesotans would get to know them.”

Taylor, however, couldn’t find the right fit. A group in Seattle expressed interest in moving the team there, but that was a dealbreaker for Taylor. Other prospective buyers either didn’t have enough money to pull off a deal or wanted to buy the whole club right away.

Then former Wolves coach Flip Saunders, who remained a friend even after getting fired by the Wolves in 2005, approached Taylor on behalf of a group of potential buyers. Soon, the two men were talking basketball — a conversation that ultimately led to Taylor’s decision to bring Saunders back into the fold as the team’s president of basketball operations and for Taylor to stay on as the club’s owner.

“He’s having fun again,” said Bill Popp, owner of Popp Communications and one of the Timberwolves’ minority owners.

Saunders’ return and the arena renovation have helped provide new energy, Popp said. “That’s very exciting for me to see, because when partners kind of get tired, it isn’t nearly as much fun.”

While Taylor also wants to spend more time with his grandchildren and doing mission work, he’s sticking with the Wolves. “As long as I’m healthy and I continue to have really good people making the day-to-day decisions, I probably could stay at it for quite awhile.”

Taylor’s wife, Becky, said there’s been a noticeable change in his demeanor since he decided to stay.

“He’s calmer,” she said. “He’s enjoying it more.”

‘I can’t force it’

Yet the question remains: What would happen if Glen Taylor got hit by a bus?

“It isn’t resolved at all,” he said. “My family would run it until a buyer could be found. My guess is that the league would get very involved to make sure it gets done, just as I have been very involved in a couple of other sales when I was chairman of the board.”

That’s what happened, for example, after former Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin died in November 2009 at the age of 85. His family sold the team to former AOL executive Ted Leonsis the following spring.

“I always think it’s good for teams to have something of a succession plan in place, but I never thought that Glen’s heart was in the sales effort because … he hadn’t found anyone who would make as much of a contribution to the community as he had done and wanted to continue to do,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said. “Minnesota is lucky that he, for now, is focusing on the revitalization of the team and Target Center.”

The good news for Wolves fans is that the team will be staying in Minnesota for the foreseeable future regardless of what happens with ownership. The Wolves and Minnesota Lynx both extended their leases at Target Center through 2032 as part of the renovation deal.

Taylor still hopes to eventually bring on a minority investor who can be his successor in waiting, but he’s not in any rush.

“I still might do that, but I think I just have to let it happen instead of me picking a time frame for it to happen. … I can’t force it. I have to get the right person.”

A steady presence

Taylor’s ownership of the Timberwolves has clearly had its ups and downs.

He acquired the club in March 1995 and, three months later, the club drafted high school phenom Kevin Garnett, who would become the face of the franchise. The team rapidly improved in coming seasons, reaching the playoffs for the first time in 1997 and making a run to the Western Conference Finals in 2004.

But then the Wolves stumbled badly in 2005, missing the playoffs for the first time in nine years. The regression continued into the two following seasons, prompting the club to trade Garnett in July 2007. It hasn’t had a winning season since.

“For a long time, we went up and it felt good,” Taylor said. “Then we fell. Trying to get through that stumbling part was terrible.”

Taylor, however, believes the Wolves are on the upswing again with Saunders at the helm and a young on-court nucleus of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic. That hasn’t yet translated the way he’d hoped on the court, though, as the team would once again miss the playoffs if the season ended today.

“I’m coming to the games thinking we can win, and it’s a much better feeling than coming to a game saying, ‘I hope we win, but I doubt it,’ ” Taylor said.

While the Wolves have struggled in recent years, the Lynx have emerged as one of the WNBA’s premier teams, winning championships in two of the past three years — a resurgence that has led to larger crowds and a profitable bottom line. The Lynx also endured a long period of losing games and money before their recent success, but Taylor didn’t waver in his support of the team or the WNBA.

“Everyone can be a great owner when you’re winning and the business is somewhat taking care of itself,” Wright said. “The test of great ownership, to me, is the leadership that is necessary to steer the franchise when times aren’t quite so good. … Glen has the ability to really weather storms and see beyond what we’re seeing on a day-to-day basis. That’s what makes him an incredible owner.”

Businesses: Chairman and CEO of Taylor Corp., a multinational business with an estimated $1.6 billion in annual sales. The company, which started as a printer, has more than 70 subsidiaries providing business and personal communications products, technologies and marketing services. The former state senator also owns businesses in the securities, agricultural and medical fields.

By John Vomhof Jr. – Staff reporter/broadcaster, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal